Strong Exports, But KOSPI Plummets to Barely Hold 6,000 Level

[Anchor]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has significantly raised its economic growth forecast for South Korea this year, just three months after its previous projection. Semiconductors are once again behind this upward revision. Samsung Electronics has ushered in an era of 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit, and South Korea is expected to become the fourth country in the world to surpass 1 trillion dollars in exports this year. However, despite these strong performances, the domestic stock market is shaking heavily. Amid a supply vacuum and the pursuit by Chinese memory makers, the KOSPI briefly plummeted below the 6,000 mark during intraday trading for the first time in about two and a half months.

First, report by Lee Seong-hoon.

[Reporter]

Opening down more than 3 percent, the KOSPI quickly expanded its losses and dropped to the 5,900 range at one point during the session.

It ultimately closed down 348 points, or 5.46 percent, at 6,035 from the previous day (October 12), barely managing to defend the 6,000 line.

KOSPI's top two heavyweights, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, plunged over 7 percent and 10 percent respectively, dragging down the index.

Due to the steep decline in large-cap semiconductor stocks, a sell-sidecar was triggered in the morning, temporarily halting program sell orders for five minutes.

This is the first time in about two months since August 19.

Foreigners net sold over 4.5 trillion won today, extending their selling streak to a sixth consecutive session.

Having fallen for five straight trading days starting from October 6, the KOSPI saw its total market capitalization drop below 5 quadrillion won.

Behind today's stock market plunge was the fear of technological catching-up by Chinese semiconductors.

Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) unveiled its achievements in developing next-generation DRAM technology and even announced plans to release server products within this year.

Concerns over intensifying memory competition and falling prices swept the market, with Japanese memory company Kioxia also plunging 13 percent today.

[Park Sang-hyun / Senior Specialist, iM Securities: The provocation of fear over China's semiconductor rise by the U.S. and overall Asian stock markets had a quite negative impact on semiconductor-related stocks. The anxiety surrounding the semiconductor industry itself further amplified the foreign selling streak.]

Anxieties over a contraction in AI investments also served as a burden.

As executives from Broadcom and Intel pointed to capital financing as the biggest constraint on the growth of the AI industry, expectations that the recent high-interest-rate environment would slow down investments resurfaced.

As investor sentiment deteriorated following the collapse of the top two semiconductor stocks and spread across the broader stock market, the KOSPI faced a Black Tuesday.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Video by: Shin Jin-soo | Video Editing by: So Ji-hye)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.